Westchester Launches Food Rescue Program

A county executive in the Hudson Valley is kicking off an initiative this afternoon announced during his recent state of the county address – food rescue.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino says the initiative is designed to help reduce hunger in the county by recovering leftover food from local schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels and restaurants, and redistributing the untouched, fresh or packaged food to local houses of worship, food pantries and soup kitchens. Tuesday’s forum will focus on food rescue at schools. The initiative will eventually expand to other locations. Astorino says a second part of the initiative will get started in late May, when a composter will be installed at the Household Material Recovery Facility in Valhalla, and the composted food waste will then be used to fertilize five local gardens run by The Food Bank for Westchester.

Five names were recently floated as potential candidates to challenge New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 election. Four of the five are in the Hudson Valley.

Ed Cox is chairman of the New York State Republican Party.

One is Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

He refers to running for county executive. And the federal agency he says he is battling is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, over aspects of an affordable housing agreement. As to whether he is ruling out a run for governor, Astorino replies: